Yehuda HaMakabi
190 BCE–160 BCE · Biblical · Modi'in
Judah Maccabee was the warrior-leader of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid-Greek empire in the second century BCE. After his father Mattityahu raised the banner of rebellion in Modi'in, Judah led a vastly outnumbered force to a string of improbable victories, recaptured Jerusalem, and rededicated the defiled Temple — the events celebrated each year at Chanukah. He fell in battle, but the Hasmonean dynasty he helped found restored Jewish sovereignty for a century.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →
Modi'inLand of Israel — Hasmonean origins
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
Modi'in in this era
The Seleucid Empire under Antiochus III and his successors ruled the Land of Israel during Yehuda HaMakabi's lifetime, a period of mounting religious oppression that would transform Jewish history. The Jewish community of Modi'in and surrounding towns faced escalating pressure to abandon Torah observance and adopt Greek religious practices; Antiochus IV Epiphanes, in particular, desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem and outlawed circumcision and Sabbath observance, driving many Jews toward apostasy or armed resistance. It was in this crucible of forced Hellenization that Yehuda's father Mattityahu and then Yehuda himself mobilized the countryside, turning Modi'in into the launching point for what became the Maccabean Revolt—a guerrilla war that would restore Jewish religious autonomy and, improbably, establish the independent Hasmonean dynasty. The very word "Maccabi" (hammer) entered Jewish consciousness as a name for liberation, and Modi'in became forever enshrined as the birthplace of Jewish armed resistance to religious persecution.
About Modi'in
Modi'in was a town in the Judean foothills (its ancient site lies between Jerusalem and the coastal plain, near the modern Israeli city of Modi'in). It is known as the home of the priestly Hasmonean family: according to the account of the Maccabean revolt, Mattathias and his sons, including Judah Maccabee, launched the revolt against the Seleucids from Modi'in in the second century BCE.
In Modi'in at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Yehuda HaMakabi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Yose ben Yoezer, Yose ben Yochanan, Matityahu HaChashmonai, Nitai HaArbeli
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Yehuda HaMakabi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Graeco-Roman world
Egyptian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.